1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a hinge assembly and an electrical device, and more particularly to a multi-stage hinge assembly having a multi-stage hinge structure for automatically locking a notebook computer, and an electrical device using the hinge assembly.
2. Related Art
Notebook computers have been widely used among the current information products because they have the main advantage of good mobility and capable of being carried by the user to anywhere according to the requirements. In the highly developed and advanced information technology, a notebook computer may serve as a mobile workstation capable of enabling the network information acquisition and transmission and the database management. So, the notebook computer is the best choice for implementing the mobile office. In addition to the consideration of the software pack, the notebook computer still has to take the human-oriented operations into important considerations, such as the interface connection convenience, weight, and operation convenience.
The notebook computer is mainly composed of a host and a liquid crystal display, which has to be opened during the usage, and the notebook computer can be operated using the keyboard on the host base or the connected mouse. After being used, the liquid crystal display has to be closed to facilitate the storage and portability. In order to prevent the liquid crystal display from being unintentionally opened and thus damaged after the computer is closed, a locking assembly is attached to the host base and the liquid crystal display to lock the notebook computer. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional electrical device 1 has a liquid crystal display 11, a host 12 and a locking assembly 13. The locking assembly 13 includes a hook 131, a slot 132 and a push button 133. When the liquid crystal display 11 and the host 12 are to be closed and locked, the hook 131 disposed on liquid crystal display 11 is used to hook the slot 132 on the host 12. Consequently, the closed liquid crystal display 11 and host 12 can be fixed, the keys disposed on the host 12 and the monitor of the liquid crystal display 11 are protected, and the notebook computer can be conveniently carried. When the notebook computer is to be opened, the push button 133 connected to the hook 131 has to be actuated in order to eliminate the locking state of the locking assembly 13. So, each of the hook 131 and the push button 133 uses a resilient member to facilitate the locking and unlocking operations.
However, the locking assembly 13 of the above-mentioned notebook computer utilizes the hook 131 on the liquid crystal display 11 to lock into the slot 132 of the host 12. So, the locking assembly 13 cannot automatically lock during the closing operation, and the user has to press down the liquid crystal display 11 to help the hook 131 on the liquid crystal display 11 to smoothly hook the slot 132. If the user unintentionally provides a too-large force, the hook 131 tends to be damaged and thus influences the operation of the locking assembly 13. Sometimes, if the closing force is too large, the side frame of the liquid crystal display 11 may be damaged. In addition, from the design point of view, most of the locking assemblies 13 are exposed from the liquid crystal display 11 or the host 12, and thus influence the glory and tend to cause the deformation or fracture of the locking assembly 13.
It is therefore a subjective of the invention to provide a multi-stage hinge assembly and an electrical device, which can solve the above-mentioned problems.